Website Designers and Webmasters

On my Free Website Quote page, I have a cool little AIM chat box that allows visitors to chat with my AOL Instant Messenger account.

Just a few minutes ago, I had the funniest conversation I’ve ever had over a chat program. Here’s the transcript:

aimguest56199364
hi

WebsitesinaFlash
Hi

aimguest56199364
sandy

WebsitesinaFlash
Hi Sandy

aimguest56199364
how many your webisite
to build your web site

WebsitesinaFlash
I’m sorry?
How much did it cost to build my website? (ie. WebsitesinaFlash.com?)

aimguest56199364
ADoes it cost for a web sites
yes

WebsitesinaFlash
I didn’t charge myself to build my website so I don’t know how much it cost.
Are you looking for a website?

aimguest56199364
how many

WebsitesinaFlash
How many what?

aimguest56199364
just
just one

WebsitesinaFlash
What kind of website are you looking for? Every website costs a different amount to make.

aimguest56199364
Ashton are you here
Jewely

WebsitesinaFlash
You want to sell Jewelry online?

aimguest56199364
yes

WebsitesinaFlash
So you’re looking for a fully e-commerce website with website design, development, shopping cart, security system, online merchant, etc.?

aimguest56199364
SandyIs there a phone number that I can called to

WebsitesinaFlash
What?

aimguest56199364 signed off

HAHAHA. I have no idea what just happened.
-Ashton Sanders

You’ve probably heard “iframes are horrible with search engines.” Well, they are.

I recently had a client want me to create scroll boxes for their website so they could fit 1000+ words into a 300×457 pixel scroll box. How can I create this scroll box without the iframe? Well, you are about to find out.

CSS Scroll Box Instead of an iframe:

We’re going to use a css property called “overflow,” and by setting it to auto, it turns a normal div into a scroll box!

#scrollbox {
width:300px;
height:457px;
overflow:auto;
}
<div id=”scrollbox”> *enter endless amounts of words*</div>

So what just happened there is we assigned a div with a fixed width and a fixed height. Normally, if you had an element (ie image or text) that was too big for those dimensions, the element will be pushed larger. By adding the CSS scrollbox property of “overflow:auto” we tell the div to create a scrollbar instead of changing the size of the div.

The CSS property “overflow” does have a possible value of “scroll”, but this adds a permanent scrollbar to the bottom and right-hand side of the div even if you don’t need them. This “auto” value is great because if your content isn’t larger than the div, no scrollbars will appear. And if your content only stretches horizontally, you will only see a horizontal scrollbar!

That’s it!
Ashton Sanders

There is an awesome Flash Animation that you should definitely see.

There is very little ActionScript, but nonetheless it is one of those animations that you could just watch forever and still not see everything.

Click to see this Sweet Flash Animation.

(This was designed and Created by Geoffrey and Ashton Sanders of Websites in a Flash)

-Enjoy
-Ashton Sanders

What is CSS Zen Garden?

It’s a great idea, thats what it is. It’s the ultimate Test of a CSS Designer. They have one basic HTML file, that is free to download, but you’re not allowed to change it. The only thing you are allowed to change is the css (which is all you need), and people create the coolest designs using only CSS!

Introduction to Cascading Style Sheets

HTML is very functional, and you can do a lot with it, but there are two large down sides to it. It’s purposes is solely for formatting, and it clogs up your HTML documents with a lot of code. Adding a Cascading Style Sheet to your website not only makes it way easier to format( and change at a later date). It also simplifies to the code like nothing else.

I recently did a Search Engine Optimization on a site called: Clear Lake Guide Service. The previous website used about 100 lines of code for the header… Using CSS, I cut that down to 20 lines of code. It keeps the Search Engines happy, and the website designers happy.

So needless to say, you can do almost anything with CSS!

Now back to CSS Zen Garden:

Zen Garden takes submission from website Designers from all over the world. And every design looks like a completely different website, even thought the XHTML is EXACTLT the same as all of the others! Right now they are getting close to 1000 submissions! If I have a free hour, I’ll throw one together as well.

“CSS makes the internet spin a little bit lighter.”
-Ashton Sanders